


To Be Loved By The Sea

by Sapphire_Princess



Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: 00Q - Freeform, Alternate Universe, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, James Bond was in the military before the events of the story, M/M, Magical Realism, Q is the sea
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-06-15 05:47:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15406332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sapphire_Princess/pseuds/Sapphire_Princess
Summary: Q is the sea. He and James meet and fall in love.Prompt fill for 007 fest 2018





	To Be Loved By The Sea

**Author's Note:**

> This is a prompt fill for the anonymous prompt exchange for the 2018 007 Fest run by MI6 Cafe. I hope I've done the prompt justice! This was a wild ride to write :)
> 
> 30:Q is the sea, Bond loves him and Q loves him back, one day, consumed by angst, Bond throws himself in and gets rescued, they live happily ever after

He wasn’t ever supposed to let himself be seen… or take a form in the presence of a human, but sometimes he preferred the perspective human eyes could give him. And he always tried to stay out of sight of the shore.

***  
The sea is vast, endless and changeable. Calm and traitorous, beautiful but with an unknown world beneath it’s surface.

James Bond has been enchanted by the sea from a young age. He chose the Navy because of it, then his retirement home at the tender age of 35 after an injury that stopped his career in it’s tracks. His limp was barely noticeable most days but he’s no good on a mission anymore and couldn’t _stand_ the thought of a desk job.

So here he is on the coast, in a house with a beautiful view of the sea and a short walk to the beach. In the summer he can swim, in the winter he can walk its shores and watch from his window.

One evening he’s sitting on a ledge, his feet in the cool water of the ocean and he swears he can see someone out there. The figure stays where they are without seeming to move so James decides he must be seeing a mirage. He settles in and closes his eyes, enjoying the feeling of the water beneath him.

***  
Q is more and more aware of the man who lives by the sea as the moon moves in the sky. It has been almost a whole month since he arrived here and he’s on the shore or within the water everyday.

Q has allowed himself to get closer and closer. He is the sea and the water… but he is also a conscious soul. He thrives and the waters flourish with life but if the sea is poisoned then he falls ill. He knows the moon, the lands and the sky. He converses with the wind, the rain and the earth beneath him.

But still, he likes the way this human feels when he’s in the water, the joy he seems to get simply from being _here_ … and Q is drawn to him.

*  
James couldn’t explain it if someone asked, but the water feels different today. He feels a warmth in his chest that he’s spent so long without he doesn’t know what to make of it at first. He treads water and checks his heart rate, checks his hands for tingling and makes sure he can breathe properly.

But rather than going away, the feeling stays. It’s as though it’s within his reach if he wants it, if he accepts it. And when he closes his eyes it’s almost like someone is _there_.

He’s alert immediately and his mind flashes to the stories he’s been told of mermaids and monsters beneath the waves. He knows that they’re not all flights of fancy or tricks of the light.

He remembers the woman he loved in Venice, who vanished beneath the waves, as though she slipped into them and ceased to exist. Even though she’d felt so solid and _real_ within his arms.

“Please,” he says quietly, opening his eyes again. James isn’t sure what, exactly, he’s expecting. But all of his senses are on alert despite the feeling of safety around him.

The water before him gathers, solidifies and dips beneath the surface. Then the figure of a young man emerges.

James’ eyes dart down beneath the water where he can see the rest of the man’s body. When he looks back up again he’s met with beautiful hazel eyes, curly brown hair thats dry despite everything and a lovely, warm smile on his face.

“Hello,” the man says.

“Hello.”

“You can stop swimming, I can hold you up,” he says, eyes dipping down to James’ leg.

James winces, but does stop. He’s floating like he’s imagined in his dreams; flying in the water. 

“Who are you?” he asks.

“You can call me Q.”

“Q?”

“Yes.” He nods and his eyes meet James’. “I like the way it sounds. And my other name is… not something I should say out loud.” He cocks his head to the side just a little.

James smiles so wide it surprises him. “I’m James.”

“Lovely to meet you, James,” Q says with sincerity and a smile that makes his eyes glitter like the ripples in the sea around them. 

***

Despite having spent most of the last two weeks talking to - and swimming with - Q, James still isn’t sure what he’ll find when he enters the sea this morning. He’d had to drive into town to shop and re stock, to clean the house and sort out his bills. He’d walked along the shore in the evening but there had been no sign of Q. 

Another man might think himself dreaming, but the pain in his leg and his sharp senses means he knows it’s all real.

He swims out to the same distance he’s usually met and within moments he feels the water swirl and Q appear.

“Good morning,” Q greets, closer than last time. “Will you let me show you something?”

James agrees and lets Q lead him around the coast to a cove that’s almost a cave.

“It’s safe,” Q assures. “I’ll make sure you don’t drown.” He seems to always say that, or something like it, every time they’re together. 

The cove is beautiful. The walls sparkle and the water is clear and cool. 

“How did you find this place?” James asks, swimming closer to Q.

“I carved it out of the rock.”

“You carved it?” James asks.

“Yes. Humans have a phrase ‘carved out by the sea’, I thought that meant some of you knew,” Q explains earnestly.

“You’re… you’re the sea?” James asks, realising belatedly how that sounds. 

“Yes. You didn’t seem surprised by my appearing yesterday. I thought… shit.” He looks away. “Shit, shit, shit,” he says to himself.

“It’s okay,” James reassures and reaches out to him. Q’s skin is smooth and soft beneath his fingers; he doesn’t flinch or try to move away. “There was a woman, once, I think she was like you.”

Q relaxes instantly and looks at James’ hand on his shoulder. He brings his own up and places it over James’.

“I’m really not supposed to let myself be seen,” he admits quietly. 

“Then why did you?” James asks, now close enough that he can feel Q’s breath on his face.

Q’s smile is small and shy. “I like you; I wanted to be closer.” His expression is so open and James feels his heart swell with affection. 

“How close?” James asks, his eyes flickering between Q’s lips and his eyes.

Q makes a noise in his throat and his knees bump against James’. He bumps his nose gently against James’ and puts his other hand lightly on his shoulder. His eyes look like they’re sparkling and theres no way to tell if it’s the waters reflection or him.

“Q?” James whispers, as he slides an arm around his waist. The new revelation settling into the background as his emotions come forwards. 

“Yes. Yes, yes.” He’s nodding and smiling.

James presses their lips together and Q surges into his arms, as the water pushes against them from all sides. He’s weightless as they kiss, Q’s mouth is warm and welcoming, his body right up against his. James closes his eyes and melts into the feeling that’s engulfing him. Q is still solid in his arms but he is also somehow more. More of everything and everywhere and James doesn’t think he can get enough. 

Q’s hands are placed on his neck, his legs now wrapped around his hips. 

The sensation is odd -so it takes a while for James to realise what he’s doing - being able to breathe under water so as not to disrupt the kiss. 

It doesn’t stop his heart from racing, nor his arms from tiring as he grips Q. So they do, eventually, part, and settle arm-in-arm on a seat carved into the rocks below the water. 

Q’s eyes are closed and for the first time James notices the faint shimmer to his skin; iridescent blues and greens that catch the low light in the cove. 

As he moves his fingers in winding patterns over his skin, he sees the changes of colour, the beautiful prismatic quality of his skin. 

Q hums and burrows his head into James’ neck. 

“Sorry. Tired. Haven’t done anything like that for a long time.”

“Which part?” James asks, curious but a bit cheeky. 

“The kissing and the breathing,” Q says tiredly. “I kissed a lagoon once. She was lovely and it was around the time I became this sea.” 

“One day, if you can, you’re going to have to explain to me what that means,” James tells him, rubbing his nose in Q’s soft hair. 

“Hmmm. One day.”

“And the breathing?” 

“If I can, I try to help those who are drowning. It isn’t easy and I am unable to take a form suitable for it for very long, but there have been a few I’ve managed to save long   
enough for help to come.”

“There have been tales of mermaids and men saving and drowning sailors, of sirens and lost loves. Is that because of those like you?”

Q’s hand is running up and down James’s thigh, his fingers sending tingles through is body. 

“Some is them, yes. But there are actually merfolk and sirens, Faeries and sprites. Most cannot see them. Sometimes the most desperate or magically inclined can.”

“Magically inclined?” James asks with disbelief. Not a phrase he’s ever thought to associate himself with. 

“An open heart and mind. Open to the possibilities at least.” 

James can’t deny that, at least with regards to his mind. His life and his job used to depend on that. But his heart? He supposes it was something he’s been searching for, quietly, on and off for years. He also knows desperation and pain. 

“I’m open to you,” James says carefully. Pushing himself against Q’s side. 

“Hmmm, good,” Q breathes quietly, then seems to fall asleep. 

***

When Q wakes, he’s in James’ arms, lying on his chest with the water up to their waists. 

“Sorry,” he mumbles. 

“It’s fine. I like it here, very peaceful. And you’re beautiful when you sleep,” James tells him. 

“Why do humans like to watch the ones they care for sleeping?” Q asks. 

James’ smile is somewhat shy and rueful. “For me it’s because I know you’re safe and resting, because you can be yourself and at peace. If you’d struggled with a nightmare I would have tried to soothe or wake you. But you, unlike most, seem as unguarded during sleep as you are when awake.” 

Q feels the heat rise to his cheeks and chest. 

“That is because I trust you. I am vulnerable when I sleep in this form, but I know you wouldn’t hurt me.”

James’ smile falls sad. “There are many I have hurt, even when I didn’t mean to. And some who I did.” 

Q nods. “You are, as they say, only human.” 

This seems to snap James out of his reverie and he laughs. 

“How do you know all of this?”

“I’m friends with one of the Fae and she tells me things and reads books to me when she visits.”

“You are full of surprises, aren’t you.”

***

Weeks go by and James - once again - has to spend a day away from the sea. He hates the distance.

He’s so used to spending his days with Q. Talking, swimming…. reading books he takes with him in water proof bags. He brings food, too. There is very little in his house for him, there was even before he met Q.

But though the days are wonderful, his nights are lonely. 

Q cannot stray onto land, cannot be further than the outgoing tide.

And James is human.

They are not star-crossed and nothing about their love is forbidden… but winter is approaching and the temperature is dropping. 

His leg is hurting more and more whenever he’s away from the water and the cold seeps into his bones during the night.

He knows what it means; understood even before his doctors appointment that morning.

By the time he makes it to the shore the wind is sharp and cold against his skin. James can feel Q around him, warming him with currents he’s brought with him. Once it’s deep enough to swim, Q solidifies next to him and leads him to their cove.

“It’s warm in here. I made sure of it when I fashioned it,” Q reassures him, diving deep beneath the surface and moving one rock from covering an underwater hot spring.

James sighs in contentment and settles on the seat near it, happily accepting Q in his arms.

He kisses his face, his neck, then his mouth. Exploring and savouring and loving. 

Q moans softly and rocks himself forwards.

James shudders and holds Q steady. Though they have been physically close for almost all the time they have known each other, they have not had any sort of sexual contact. He isn’t sure Q _can_ , and he gets such a wonderful rush of pleasure just simply being with him… that it hasn’t mattered.

“James, would you be amenable to having sex with me?” Q asks so earnestly that James holds back his laugh of shock.

“I would, yes.” He meets Q’s mouth in a kiss that makes his intent very clear. It’s open mouthed, deep and wonderful. 

Q trails kisses down his jaw, his neck and his shoulder. He sucks marks into his skin the make James arch and rut up against him as his moans echo off the walls around them. 

“I love you,” Q says earnestly, his face above him surrounded by the reflection of the water on the walls. 

James swallows hard. “I love you too.”

Q smiles softly. “Will you allow me to show you how much? I promise it won’t hurt you.” 

James is nodding and holding Q right against him. 

“Yes. Please, yes.”

For all James gives as good as he’s got, he finds himself willing to bask in the love Q shoes him. His touches are tender, his fingers around his cock are tentative, then firmer as he learns what James likes. 

He accepts James’ hand around him and shudders with each stroke. 

“J-James,” he stammers out. “I want.” He’s panting harshly. “I want you to be inside of me when I finish.”

James groans, relieved that Q’s grip on the base of his cock is so tight. 

“Do you need me to...” he trails off, squeezing Q’s buttocks. 

“No need. I’m not human, so I can be more accommodating without preparation.” His smile is cheeky but warm. 

He lifts himself and settles over James, lining them up and waiting for a nod of permission before sinking down. 

James is shaking with the pressure on his cock and the tingles of pleasure over his entire body. 

Q looks blissed out above him, smiling down at James and running his fingers through his hair. 

“If you think you’ll be able to handle it, I can be inside you as well.” 

“Next time,” James agrees with a smile. 

Q cocks his head to the side and frowns, stilling above him. “Although I am certainly happy to do so, I meant now. Along with you being inside of me.” He says it so bluntly that James feels his cheeks heat with the words. 

“Oh. “ 

Q smiles. “I am capable of feeling through and being in part of the water,” he says, biting his lip and squeezing James’ cock. He close his eyes and James can feel a pressure at his entrance. A soothing, warming nudge. 

He clamps his legs firm against Q’s sides. 

“Yes.” 

Q feels solid inside him, warm and _there_ and James has never, ever felt anything like this. 

Q soothes him with his hands on his face, his chest. The water laps over them and helps to keep him relaxed. Q squeezes around him to keep him hard and present. 

Slowly, slowly, James relaxes and when Q presses their lips together in a soft, sensual kiss, James responds in kind. 

It builds between them in ebbs and flows, James realising just how much of the sea Q really is. With Q around and inside him, and James giving back in kind, it’s a beautiful and emotional crescendo when he comes long and hard, Q with him all the way. 

He shivers with the after shocks of pleasure, of Q slipping out of him and he out of Q. 

Warmer kisses, both holding each other closely. James closes his eyes and realises with a startling clarity that he doesn’t ever want this to end. That he loves Q so absolutely that he doesn’t ever want there to be life without him in it. 

Q strokes James’ chest, his head resting over his heart.

“If I return my legs to a more natural form will you mind?”

James shakes his head. “Of course not. Does it take a lot of energy? Staying in human form?” He feels the lower half of Q’s body shift and change. It feels like a blanket is covering him, a blanket that moves of its own accord from time to time.

“Not normally, no. But sex in that form is exhausting. Utterly worth it, but it will be a few hours until I’ll be able to do that again.”

“Can you have sex in this form?” he asks.

“You haven’t seen it,” Q chides gently.

“Doesn’t matter. As long as you’re willing and able, I’d have sex with you whatever form you take.”

He feels Q shiver in his arms.

“Yes. I can. And I would like to explore the possibilities with you… but I really am too tired to manage it now.”

James hums his assent and runs his hand down his back, it goes smoothly from his skin to something… softer and not quite so solid. He lifts his head up and sees enough to know that his lower half looks like a jellyfish. Tendrils in the same iridescent colours his skin takes on. Some are wider than others, but they look beautiful… and James can’t deny he wants to explore them in whatever way Q is open to.

“Q?” he asks, his voice barely straining above a whisper.

“Hmmm?”

“Can I stay here tonight?” 

“Are you sure?” Q asks, his tendrils wrapping themselves around James a little more snuggly.

“I’m sure.” 

Q turns his head and kisses his skin. “Then of course you can. But when you wake in the morning I might be more transparent. Humanoid but I’ll look like the rest of me.”

“I love you regardless,” James says into his hair. 

***

Q was loathed to leave James that morning but he needed to head to his home to eat and shave and shower. Q can keep James’ skin in good condition and balanced within the water just by being near him but he can’t nourish him. 

Q lets himself _be_ for a few hours and swims deep down, brushing over the sand of the ocean floor, communing with the fishes, then the dolphins. They’re happy to race him for a while and wish him well when he settles once again. 

He knows that James hasn’t entered the water and he wonders how he is, what he does when he’s not with him.

There’s a sorrow and a pain that he carries with him, more than just the pain in his leg. He has seen and been affected by more than Q has been and yet he hasn’t been crushed under the weight of it.

He is an honourable man and a wonderful person. Q wouldn’t have given his love to anyone else. But Q worries, as he supposes all lovers do. Because the seasons are moving fast towards winter and the seas will soon turn ice cold.

Q is sure he won’t see James for a few days; his journey home was long and hard. But he will keep his senses open for any sign of him.

***

James can’t make it much further than the end of the garden without a searing pain in his leg whenever he moves or the constant ache when he’s still.

It has been three days since he’s been able to get to the beach but today he’s determined.

When he’d seen the rain outside of his window he’d had an idea and struggled to the cliff edge with his most needed possessions in waterproof bags.

He closes his eyes and hopes the rain water hitting his head then rolling off him to the water below takes his message to Q, the sea, his love.

_‘I can’t do this any more. I’ve been lucky, since we met, but this is the only way I know of getting back to you.’_

He lowers himself on the unsteady cliff edge and knows he will sit there until he sees Q, the pain becomes overwhelming or the ground crumbles beneath him.

He doesn’t know what hope there is, doesn’t know how to solve the impossible.

He just knows that he can’t cope being housebound. It would have been better for him to die in the field.

After an hour the pain is intense and he is shivering with the cold, his teeth chattering as his fingers shake. He can’t even stand. So he leans himself over the edge and hopes upon hope that Q is there to meet him. 

Then he falls forwards until there’s nothing below him but air…. then water.

***

Q moves faster than he’s had to before. He follows the faint traces he can feel in the water until he finally sees James.

He beats his tail harder against the water and has him in his arms, one hand on his neck to keep him breathing as he drags him and the bag he’s carrying to their cove.

He hauls James up onto the highest ledge, throws his bag against the cove wall and brings the water out of his clothes. He’s unconscious but breathing and Q takes the time to strip his clothing and shoes, throwing them to join the rest of his belongings out of the way and the water.

“Shit. Shit, shit, shit,” he mutters as he dips under the surface and removes the rock from the heat stream.

He can cry in this form and he has been since he felt the first flicker of James’ despair in the water. Q is so shaken that he has to focus to change forms and settle himself on top of the man he loves, warming and soothing him until he wakes.

***

When he opens his eyes he sees the light dance in patterns across a familiar ceiling and feels a familiar warmth in his arms.

Q is wrapped around him, human then tendrils, his hair wild and curling on James’ chest. He’s sleeping soundly but when James runs his fingers across his own chest he finds it wet with tears, tears that are still streaming from Q’s eyes.

He cups his face and strokes his cheek.

“I’m sorry,” he whispers, not knowing what else to say.

Q stirs and blinks his eyes rapidly, moving to look down at James.

“You almost drowned,” Q tells him, fear making his words shake. “I didn’t… I’ve never…. oh, James.” Q sobs. 

James sits up and gathers Q in his lap, his tendrils surrounding them both.

“I didn’t know what else to do. I couldn’t get to you any other way. I barely made it to the cliff. Another day and I would have been worse than dead.”

Q nods then brings his hands up to James’ face to wipe away his tears.

“You can stay with me, if you want to. We will find a way, it’s been done before.”

“How?”

“I don’t know. I can find out, we can find out. For now you will be safe, with me. I promise.”

“Q…”

“Shhh,” Q soothes, stroking James’ cheeks. “We’re going to be okay.”

***

As it turns out, there isn’t much they actually _have_ to do. Or rather, they’ve done a lot of it already.

“So all I have to do is pledge my heart to you?” James asks, treading water as he and Q lay the last of the sea flower circle on the waters surface around them.

“And I pledge mine in return.” Q bites his lip in the way James has become used to him doing. “But you will be giving up the land and our lives will be tied together. Or, rather, yours will be tied to mine.”

“How long does a sea live?” James asks.

“Three hundred years, there or there abouts.”

“How old are you?” he asks, realising that he doesn’t know.

“About 35. It is a long time.”

James smiles. “It is. But you said that if we do this then I will be able to breathe and thrive in the water, that we can explore and meet the merfolk, the fae and explore this world of yours.” He takes Q’s hands in his. “When I came here I thought my life was over. I was going to spend my days in peace and pain until they were over. Then I met you, Q.”

“Will you share your life and your heart with me?” Q asks, his eyes turning green as they meet James’.

“Yes. Will you share yours with me?”

Q’s smile is wide and bright. “Yes. Forever, James. I promise.”

***

Q has spent the past few months marvelling at how well James has taken to life beneath the waves. Their bond has healed his leg and though he is still troubled at times, he is better, Q knows, with this new world to explore.

They still visit their cove, they keep it as their place to read and eat human food that Q’s fae friend brings to them. She and James have struck up a friendship that Q’s pleased to see.

But they tend to sleep in the various places Q has called home in his time here. Coves and caverns and beautiful caves, hidden places that even the merfolk haven’t found. Wonders within wonders.

“Here,” James offers one day. He gives Q a ring, fashioned from metals and pearls they have found on their travels. “I know you can’t always wear it, but I want you to have it.”

“A human tradition?” Q asks, smiling.

James nods and raises his hand to show him one almost identical.

Q slips it on to the same finger on his hand.

“Thank you.”

James nods and wraps his arms around him, kissing him with thanks and love and light all at once.

***  
 _fin_

**Author's Note:**

> Though not mentioned, I pictured the Fae as R.


End file.
